Multi-level conflict-free entity clusterings

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure relates clustering similar data records together in a hierarchical clustering scheme. Each tier in a cluster corresponds to a minimal match score, which reflects a degree of confidence. In this respect, a higher confidence may lead to smaller sized clusters while a lower confidence may lead to larger sized clusters. Ordinal classification may be used to generate hierarchical clusters. In some embodiments, hierarchical clustering with conflict resolution is used to resolve user-defined hard conflicts in each tier of the clustering results.

BACKGROUND

In the course of business, large amounts of data records are collectedand stored in one or more databases. These data records may reflectcustomer information, business records, events, products, or otherrecords pertinent to a relevant business. These records can accumulatefrom a number of data sources. For example, a retail company may sellproducts over different channels such as online e-commerce platforms aswell as physical store locations. The retail company may maintainseparate customer records for each of its different retail channels.

Records may be maintained in separate database tables. Merging twodatabase tables may be time consuming and costly. The present disclosuredescribes systems and methods of managing a database that overcomes anumber of the drawbacks of prior art solutions. Specifically, thepresent disclosure relates to clustering data records that likely referto the same real-world information. The advantages and benefits of thepresent disclosure will be discussed in further detail.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood withreference to the attached drawings. The components in the drawings arenot necessarily drawn to scale, with emphasis instead being placed uponclearly illustrating the principles of the disclosure. Moreover, in thedrawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout several views.

FIG. 1 is a drawing of a computing environment 100 according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the functionality ofthe software application using a classifier 109, executed in a computingenvironment 100 of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the functionality ofthe software application executed in a computing environment 100 of FIG.1 performing hierarchical clustering of data records with conflictresolution according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4A is an example of a visual depiction of a hierarchical clusteringgenerated by the software application executed in a computingenvironment 100 of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 4B is an example of a dendrogram showing a hierarchical clusteringgenerated by the software application executed in a computingenvironment 100 of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5A is an example of an acceptable triplet according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5B is an example of a triplet with a hard conflict according tovarious embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is an example of data records stored in a database in a computingenvironment 100 of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 7 is an example of data records stored in a database that aresubject to preprocessing in a computing environment 100 of FIG. 1according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is an example of two blocks of data records in a computingenvironment 100 of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 9 is an example of pairwise comparison operations and ordinalclassifications performed on data records in a computing environment 100of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is an example of a hierarchical clustering generated by thesoftware application executed in a computing environment 100 of FIG. 1according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 depicts a processed database table in a computing environment100 of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 12 is an example of cluster IDs provided by a client device in acomputing environment 100 of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the functionality ofthe software application executed in a computing environment 100 of FIG.1 performing hierarchical clustering with conflict resolution within aconnected component according to various embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 14 is a schematic block diagram that provides one exampleillustration of a computing system 101 of FIG. 1 according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate to clusteringcommon database records that exist across one or more database tables.Clustering records can be a time consuming and burdensome process. Thismay be the case where there is a likelihood that redundant records existwithin the two or more database tables that are being clustered. Forexample, two records may reflect the same user account such that theycontain overlapping information, but not identical information. Thepresent disclosure describes embodiments that employ machine learning toeffectively cluster records.

The present disclosure employs hierarchical clustering of records.Within the hierarchy are different tiers, where each tier corresponds toa particular degree of confidence. For example, one or more databasetables may contain records for various customers, with a likelihood ofduplicative records. A lower confidence clustering scheme has a lowerthreshold when clustering duplicative records. This may lead to fewer,but larger, clusters. Under a lower confidence clustering scheme, thereis a risk that two records that are deemed duplicative refer todifferent customers. A higher confidence clustering scheme, on the otherhand, will have more clusters that are generally smaller in size. Thebenefit is that the records within a cluster are more likely to refer tothe same customer while the downside is it is more likely to havedifferent clusters represent the same customer.

By applying hierarchical clustering according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure, users who desire different degrees of confidence fordifferent applications may select clusters appropriately. For example,perhaps for email marketing purposes, a lower confidence of clusteringis desirable because reducing the number of clusters is important at thecost of incorrectly assuming that two records refer to the samecustomer. Similarly, a higher confidence of clustering is desirable inthe case of communicating sensitive data in order to avoid the risk ofincorrectly assuming that two records refer to the same customer.

According to various embodiments, hierarchical clustering is achieved byusing an ordinal classifier to evaluate the degree that two inputs are amatch. In addition, in some embodiments, hierarchical clusteringinvolves performing conflict resolution to detect hard conflicts. Thepresence of a hard conflict strongly suggests an overly broad clusteringand is not desirable. After generating a hierarchical clustering,hierarchical cluster identifiers (IDs) are assigned to each record todesignate how the record falls within the hierarchy. The hierarchicalcluster ID may include a series of values, wherein each value reflects arespective tier within the hierarchical clustering. Users can specifywhere in the hierarchy they prefer to be when selecting clusters ofrecords. While the foregoing provides a high level summary, the detailsof the various embodiments may be understood with respect to theFigures.

FIG. 1 shows a computing environment 100 according to variousembodiments. The computing environment includes a computing system 101that is made up of a combination of hardware and software. The computingsystem 101 includes a database 103, a software application 106, and aclassifier 109. The computing system 101 may be connected to a network102 such as the Internet, intranets, extranets, wide area networks(WANs), local area networks (LANs), wired networks, wireless networks,or other suitable networks, etc., or any combination of two or more suchnetworks.

The computing system 101 may comprise, for example, a server computer orany other system providing computing capability. Alternatively, thecomputing system 101 may employ a plurality of computing devices thatmay be arranged, for example, in one or more server banks or computerbanks or other arrangements. Such computing devices may be located in asingle installation or may be distributed among many differentgeographical locations. For example, the computing system 101 mayinclude a plurality of computing devices that together may comprise ahosted computing resource, a grid computing resource and/or any otherdistributed computing arrangement. In some cases, the computing system101 may correspond to an elastic computing resource where the allottedcapacity of processing, network, storage, or other computing-relatedresources may vary over time. The computing system 101 may implement oneor more virtual machines that use the resources of the computing system101.

Various applications and/or other functionality may be executed in thecomputing system 101 according to various embodiments. Also, variousdata is stored in the database 103 or other memory that is accessible tothe computing system 101. The database 103 may represent one or moredatabases 103.

The components executed on the computing system 101 include a softwareapplication 106 and a classifier 109, which may access the contents ofthe database 103. According to various embodiments, the softwareapplication 103 is configured to generate hierarchical clusters usingconflict resolution. The software application 106 employs a classifier109 that may be integrated into the software application 109 or aseparate module. The classifier 109 may be an ordinal classifier.According to various embodiments, an ordinal classifier is a softwarecomponent that receives two inputs and generates at least an ordinallabel that reflects a degree of match between the two inputs. Forexample, an ordinal label may include, but is not limited to a“Strong-Match”, “Moderate-Match,” “Weak-Match”, “Unknown”,“Hard-Conflict.” An “Unknown” label represents a case where there is nomatch and the compared data contains no hard conflict. A “Hard-Conflict”represents a case where there is no match and the compared data isinconsistent in a manner indicative of a hard conflict. Otheruser-defined ordinal labels may be used to express variousclassifications for performing hierarchical clustering or conflictresolution.

The data stored in the database 103 includes one or more database tables112. A database table 112 includes several records, where each recordhas one or more corresponding fields. When stored in a relationaldatabase 103, a database table 112 may be linked to one or morerelational tables 115. For example, if an airline company maintained adatabase table 112 that stored customer records, there may be arelational table 115 storing the flight history for each customer. Thecontents of the relational table 115 links to a corresponding recordusing, for example, a record ID or foreign key included in the table112.

The software application 106 executing in the computing system 101 maygenerate a processed database table 118 by processing one or moredatabase tables 112. For example, the processed database table 118 maybe a merged database table that is generated by de-duplicating at leastone database table 112. Thus, the processed database 118 includesinformation that allows one or more records to be consolidated in theevent they are deemed to be a match. According to various embodiments ofthe present disclosure, the degree of strength in a match is reflectedin the merged database using, for example, a cluster ID.

According to various embodiments, the processed database table 118 is arelational database table that maintains the same relational links ofthe one or more database tables 112 after it is processed.

The computing environment 100 also includes one or more client device(s)124. A client device 124 allows a user to interact with the componentsof the computing system 101 over a network 102. A client device 124 maybe, for example, a cell phone, laptop, personal computer, mobile device,or any other computing device used by a user. The client device 124 mayinclude an application such as a web browser or mobile application thatcommunicates with the software application 106 to access, manipulate,edit, or otherwise process database tables 112. The software application106 sends and receives information to and from the client device 124.

Next, a general description of the operation of the various componentsof the computing system 101 is provided. Various businesses or otherentities utilize the computing system to store information in a database103. For example, businesses may want to store records reflectingcustomers, products, transactions, events, items, or any other piece ofinformation relevant to the business. Records are collected over timeand stored in one or more database tables 112. For example, when abusiness gets a new customer, a software program may create a recordreflecting the new customer. This record may include the customer'sname, address, contact information, or any other information thatidentifies the customer. Such information is stored as fields within adatabase table.

In practice, a single record is sufficient to represent a customer.However, it is possible that duplicate (e.g., redundant) records areinadvertently or unintentionally created and/or exist within one or moredatabases 103. For example, a customer may register with a business viaan online portal, which creates a customer record for that customer.Later, the same customer may inadvertently register again with theonline portal, thereby creating a redundant customer record in thedatabase table 112. Also, a company may have a first database table 112for its brick and mortar customers and a second database table 112 forits e-commerce customers. It is possible that the same customer has acorresponding record in these two different database tables 112. Asanother example, two businesses maintaining their own customer recordsmay merge such that the same customer may exist in two differentdatabase tables 112. The resulting processed database table could haveredundant records reflecting the same customer.

Duplicate records are not necessarily identical. While they possessoverlapping information, there may be field values that are different.For example the field values of “Joe” and “Joseph” are not identical,yet they may be part of duplicate records. Because multiple records mayrepresent the same real-world entity, it is desirable to group relatedrecords together so that they are clustered. A classifier 109 may beused to determine whether two records should be classified as a matchbased on the degree of related or common field values between the tworecords. The classifier 109 may determine the likelihood that a pair ofrecords represent the same real-world entity such as, for example, aparticular customer. The classifier 109 may calculate a raw score thatquantifies the degree of similarity between two records. The raw scoremay be converted to a normalized score. An ordinal label may be assignedto the normalized score. An example of this is depicted in Table 1below, where a normalized score, x, is assigned an ordinal label if itfalls within a particular range:

TABLE 1 Normalized Score (X) Ordinal Label X ≤ 1 Hard-Conflict 1 < X ≤ 2Unknown 2 < X ≤ 3 Weak-Match 3 < X ≤ 4 Moderate-Match 4 < X ≤ 5Strong-Match

When performing a pairwise comparison of records, different combinationsof field values among the two records are compared. For example, in oneembodiment, the value of F1 of a first record is compared to the valueof F1 of a second record, then the value of F2 of the first record iscompared to the value of F2 of the second record, and so on. Thecomparison of two values yields a feature with respect to the recordpair. A feature is a programmed calculation taking as inputs M recordsand/or other data such as external metadata and returns a numeric valueas output. The variable M=2 in the case of handling a record pair. Thatnumeric output may be, for example, a real value bounded between 0 and1, or a binary value with two distinct outputs, 0 being considered“false” and 1 being considered “true.” A feature score is the specificoutput value generated by a feature for a given set of records or recordpair. A feature score refers to the degree that two field values are thesame.

For example, comparing the first name field value of “Joseph” to thefirst name field value of “Joe” may yield a “first_name_match” featurehaving a feature score of 0.88 on a scale of 0 to 1, where 0 meansno-match and 1 means a perfect match. In other embodiments the firstname feature may be a binary value of “true/T”, meaning match, or“false/F”, meaning no-match. In addition, features may be determinedbased on a combination of field values. Here, a feature may be“full_name_match,” which is a feature based on concatenating a firstname field value with a last name field value.

Features are combined to form a feature signature. The feature signaturequantifies the extent that a pair of records likely represent the samereal-world entity. As an example, a feature signature may be made up offeatures such as “first_name_match,” “last_name_match,”“full_name_match,” “email_address_match,” etc. A feature signatureresulting from a pairwise comparison is inputted into a classifier 109to determine an ordinal label for the two inputs.

While the description above discusses pairwise comparisons between tworecords, hierarchical clustering, according to various embodiments,performs pairwise comparisons between inputs that may be clusters ofrecords. A cluster may refer to a group of two or more records as wellas a single record. A cluster of one record is referred to as asingleton cluster. For example, a pairwise comparison may compare onesingleton cluster (a first input) to a cluster of multiple records (asecond input). As described in further detail below, using clusters asinputs to a classifier 109 provides hierarchical clustering.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the functionality ofthe software application 106 using a classifier 109, executed in acomputing environment 100 of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments ofthe present disclosure. The software application 106 is configured toidentify a match status for record pairs within a set of records. Theset of records may be organized into connected components by positiveedges. A positive edge refers to a matched record pair or otherwise arecord pair having a match status higher than a threshold level. Aconnected component refers to a subset of records derived from therecords in one or more database tables. This is discussed in furtherdetail below.

The software application 106 selects a first input 203 and a secondinput 206 to perform a pairwise comparison 209. An input may be acluster made up of multiple records or a singleton cluster. The firstinput 203 and second input 206 may be selected by the softwareapplication according to a hierarchical clustering algorithm thatiteratively selects inputs, as discussed in various embodiments below.

Once the two inputs are selected, the software application 106 performsa pairwise comparison 209. This may involve comparing the field valuesbetween the first input 203 and second input 206 to determine a featurefor a particular field or set of fields. The pairwise comparison 209generates a feature signature 212 which may be made up of variousfeatures of the fields' values being compared.

The feature signature 212 reflects how two inputs are similar ordissimilar based on the extent the field values are similar. In otherwords, the feature signature 212 corresponds to a series of featuresbetween a pair of inputs being compared. A first pair of inputs 203 a,206 a may have the same feature signature 212 as a different set ofinputs 203 b, 206 b even though the first pair represents a differententity than the second pair. In this case, it is inferred that the firstpair of inputs 203 a, 206 a are similar to each other in the same waythat the second pair of inputs 203 b, 206 b are similar to one another.For example, given the trivial set of features “Fuzzy Last Name match”and “Fuzzy First Name match”, the first pair of inputs 203 a, 206 a{“Stephen Meyles”, “Steve Myles” } will generate a feature signature of[1 1], where “1” refers to a binary value indicating a match. Inaddition, a second pair of inputs 203 b, 206 b {“Derek Slager”, “DerkeSlagr”} will also generate a feature signature 212 of [1 1]. This doesnot necessarily mean that the first pair of inputs 203 a, 206 a arerelated to the same real-world identity as the second pair of inputs 203b, 206 b. Instead, it suggests that the inputs have the same datavariations (fuzzy matches of first and last name). Records with the samedata variations will have the same signature.

After generating the feature signature 212, the software application 106uses a classifier 109 (FIG. 1) to perform a classification of thefeature signature 212. This classification process calculates a rawscore 223 that correlates to the strength that a particular featuresignature indicates a match. The raw score may be any range of numbers.The raw score quantifies the confidence that a particular featuresignature 212 represents two inputs that refer to the same real-worldentity.

In some embodiments, the raw score 223 may be normalized to a normalizedscore 226. In addition, an ordinal label may be assigned to the rawscore 223 or normalized score 226, as discussed above. To elaboratefurther, after calculating raw score 223 or normalized score 226, thesoftware application 106 compares the raw score 223 or normalized score226 to predetermined threshold ranges to yield a corresponding ordinallabel that classifies the feature signature 212.

According to various embodiments, the classifier 109 is configured usingordinal training data 229 and/or hard conflict rules 231. Ordinaltraining data 229 is generated from users who manually label test datato build business logic (e.g., a history) of how people would classifytwo inputs. The classifier 109 is “trained” in the sense that it appliesordinal training data 229 and extrapolates it and applies it to newcombinations of input pairs 203 a, 206 a. For example, if the ordinaltraining data 229 indicates that a particular feature 212 was repeatedlylabeled as a “Moderate-Match” among a plurality of other labels, thenthe classifier will generate a raw score 223 that corresponds to theordinal label of “moderate-match.”

According to various embodiments, the classifier 109 can classify a pairof records or a pair of clusters. The classifier 109 allows each fieldto be a vector, for example, an “email” field may be [“r-1@test-one.com”“r-1@test-two.com” ]. When applying the classifier 109 to cluster pairs,each semantic field is a concatenation of the semantic values from eachcluster member. For example, a first input made of two records, R-1 andR-2, may have email address values of “emai-r-1@test.com” and“email-r-2@test.com”, respectively. The email field for this clusterbecomes [“email-r-1@test.com”, “email-r-2@test.com” ].

When configured to apply hard conflict rules 231, the classifier mayanalyze the feature signature 212 or the input pair 203 a, 206 a andcheck whether a rule is violated. An example of a hard conflict rule iswhether the field values for a “social security number” field is anexact match. If it is not an exact match, the classifier will apply anordinal label of “Hard-Conflict” regardless of the remainder of thefeature signature 212. If there are real-world scenarios where tworecords should never be clustered, it is appropriate to apply a hardconflict rule.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the functionality ofthe software application 106 executed in a computing environment 100 ofFIG. 1 performing hierarchical clustering of data records with conflictresolution according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.It is understood that the flowchart of FIG. 3 provides merely an exampleof the many different types of functional arrangements that may beemployed to implement the operation of the portion of the softwareapplication 106 as described herein. As an alternative, the flowchart ofFIG. 3 may be viewed as depicting an example of elements of a methodimplemented in the computing system 101 (FIG. 1) according to one ormore embodiments.

At 301, the software application 106 accesses a database 103 (FIG. 1).At 304, the software application 106 obtains one or more database tables112 (FIG. 1). For example, the software application 106 may download oneor more database tables 112 to local memory or cache. In otherembodiments, the software application 106 may present credentials togain permission to access one or more database tables 112. The one ormore database tables 112 include records that are subject tohierarchical clustering.

In the event there are multiple database tables 112, at 305, thesoftware application 106 preprocesses the database tables 112. Forexample, the software application 106 may fuse or otherwise concatenatethe database tables in a manner described in co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/729,931, which is tided, “EFFECTIVELY FUSINGDATABASE TABLES” and which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

At 307, the software application 106 performs one or more blockingoperations 307. A blocking operation is used to identify a block ofrecords among the one or more database tables 112 that are likely torefer to the same real-world entity. A blocking operation may provide arough estimate of what records should be clustered together. A blockingoperation may use a blocking rule that is based on whether the recordsacross one or more database tables 112 contain an exact match withrespect to at least one field in the at least one database table. Forexample, a blocking rule may check whether there is a first name andlast name match across all records. This may form a block of records,which serves as a starting point for performing hierarchical clustering.

According to various embodiments, different blocking operations areperformed before performing hierarchical clustering. Records in one ormore database tables 112 may be blocked according to a first blockingoperation such as a name match rule and a second blocking operation suchas an email match rule. Thus, a record within a database table 112 maybe associated with one or more blocks.

At 308, the software application 106 performs pairwise comparisons andclassifications for a given block of records. According to variousembodiments, the software application 106 operates in accordance withthe discussion above of FIG. 2. The software application 106 invokes aclassifier 109 (FIG. 1) to classify various inputs 203, 206 (FIG. 2).The software application 106 performs pairwise comparisons andclassifications on all record pairs within each block of records.

At 310, the software application 106 determines a subset of records suchas, for example, a a connected component based on the positive edgesfrom the classification results. The concept of a connected componentrefers to grouping records together based on whether there is asufficiently strong match between records pairs and by applyingtransitive association. For example, If R1 and R2 have a match and R2and R3 have a match, then the software application 106 connects R1, R2,and R3 through transitive association. By performing one or moreblocking operations, the software application 106 determines a connectedcomponent (e.g., R1, R2, and R3) which is a set of connected recordswithin the blocks.

To elaborate further, the software application 106 collects the positiverecord pairs (record pairs with the classifier score higher than thepre-specified threshold). After that, connected components arealgorithmically constructed from the positive record pairs. In eachconnected component, every record is connected with others through oneor more positive edges (to the extent one exists) directly ortransitively. The software application 106 continues across differentconnected components until there is no positive edge left.

Since records are allowed to be connected through transitivity insidethe connected component, sometimes hard conflicts will occur (e.g., FIG.5B), and sometimes not (e.g., FIG. 5A). Each connected component becomesthe input of the hierarchical clustering algorithm. As discussed below,hierarchical clustering is applied to each connected component tofurther partition the component and resolve any hard-conflict itdetects.

At 313, the software application 106 generates hierarchical clusters fora given connected component. An example of hierarchical clusters ispresented with respect to FIG. 4A. Hierarchical clusters may be storedas a key-value database as the hierarchical clusters are being generatedby the software application 106. At 316, the software application 106generates a processed database table 118 (FIG. 1). In some embodiments,the software application 106 generates hierarchical cluster IDs for eachrecord and assigns them to the records in the processed database table118. The use of hierarchical cluster IDs is discussed in greater detailwith respect to FIGS. 11 and 12.

The following is an example of applying the flowchart of FIG. 3 to adatabase table made up of at least records Ra, Rb, Rc, and Rd. At 304,one or more database tables are accessed to obtain records Ra throughRd. The database tables are processed at 305 to normalize records Rathrough Rd so that their field values may be compared. At 307, twoblocking operations are performed on the processed database table. Afirst blocking operation blocks records according to name while a secondblocking operation blocks records according to zip code. As a result,Ra, Rb, and Rc form a first block while Ra and Rd form a second block.At 308, the various record pairs of the first block ({Ra, Rb}, {Ra, Rc},{Rb, Rc}) are compared and classified. The same applies to the secondblock where Ra is compared to Rd. The record pairs {Ra, Rb} and {Ra, Rd}have match labels that exceed a threshold level. For example, they maybe correspond to a Strong-Match, Moderate-Match, or Weak-Match or anyother status that indicates a minimum status for a match. The otherrecords pairs, {Rb-Rc} and {Ra-Rc} correspond to a low match status, anunknown match status or a hard conflict, below the threshold levelestablished as a minimum status for a match. At 310, a connectedcomponent is created from Ra, Rb, and Rd. The connected component isderived from the various records in the database by blocking,classifying, and evaluating match scores. The connected component of Ra,Rb, and Rd removes records having a hard conflict or records withsufficiently low match statuses. At 313, the connected component issubject to hierarchical clustering. This is described in further detailwith respect to FIG. 13.

FIG. 4A is an example of a visual depiction of a hierarchical clusteringgenerated by the software application 106 executed in a computingenvironment 100 of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In this example, there are seven records R1-R7.These records may have been identified from one or more database tables112 (FIG. 1) using a blocking operation and determining a connectedcomponent. Records R1-R7 represent records that have a likelihood ofreferring to the same entity such as a particular customer account.

A cluster of multiple records is depicted as a cloud bubble drawn aroundmultiple records. Single records form singleton clusters. The strengthof a match between two records is depicted by one or more lines betweentwo records. Stronger matches are depicted with more lines while weakermatches are depicted with fewer lines. For example, R1 and R3 form astrong match, as depicted with 3 lines while R2 and R4 depict a weakermatch with one line.

The hierarchical clustering in this example is made up of multiple tierswhere a bottom tier 401 applies a lower confidence matching, a middletier 402, applies a moderate confidence matching, and an upper tier 403applies a higher confidence matching. When a lower confidence matchingscheme is applied, the software application 106 is configured to clusterrecords that have a relatively weaker link. Accordingly, this may yieldfewer clusters that are generally larger in size.

In the lower tier 401, the lower confidence matching yields a firstcluster 409 a made up of records R1-R5, a second cluster 409 b made upof record R6 and a third cluster 409 c made up of record R7. Within thetier, the seven records R1-R7 have been consolidated into three groupsor clusters. Consolidating records can lead to downstream processingefficiency depending on how the end user wishes to use the records.However, the tradeoff is that the clustering may include weaker matches.

In the middle tier 402, the moderate confidence matching yields a firstcluster 411 a made up of records R1-R4, a second cluster 411 b made upof record R5, a third cluster 411 c made up of record R6, and a fourthcluster 411 d made up of record R7. Within the tier, the seven recordsR1-R7 have been consolidated into four clusters. When compared to alower tier 401, the moderate tier 402 has more clusters, where thecluster size is smaller. For example, the first cluster 409 a of thelower tier 401 is split into two clusters 411 a and 411 b in the middletier 402. Under the moderate matching scheme of the middle tier 402,weaker links, such as the link between R4 and R5 are not permitted toexist within a cluster.

In the upper tier 403, the higher confidence matching yields a firstcluster 413 a made up of records R1-R3, a second cluster 413 b made upof record R4, a third cluster 413 c made up of record R5, a fourthcluster 413 d made up of record R6, and a fifth cluster 413 e made up ofrecord R7. Within the tier, the seven records R1-R7 have beenconsolidated into five clusters. When compared to a lower tier 401 andmoderate tier 402, the upper tier has more clusters, where the clustersize is smaller. Under the upper tier, only strong matches are permittedwhen forming clusters.

According to various embodiments, the software application 106 connectsvarious records across different tiers 401, 402, 403 using a key valuedatabase. A processed database table 118 (FIG. 1) may be generated fromthe key value database.

FIG. 4B is an example of a dendrogram 423 showing a hierarchicalclustering generated by the software application executed in a computingenvironment 100 of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of thepresent disclosure. The dendrogram provides examples of values thatdemonstrate various degrees of match levels. For example, thehierarchical clustering ranging from a “Strong-Match” tier towards thebottom of the dendrogram 423, a “Moderate-Match” tier, and a“Weak-Match” tier towards the top of the dendrogram 423. The top of thedendrogram depicts the presence of a hard conflict.

FIGS. 5A and 5B show the potential for hard conflicts when clusteringrecords. The potential for a hard conflict occurs when at least threerecords (a triplet) are grouped together. FIG. 5A is an example of anacceptable triplet according to various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 5A illustrates a case where a hard conflict does notarise. FIG. 5A depicts a triplet 513 with Record 1, Record 2, and Record3, R1-R3, respectively. R1 and R2 form a strong match based on theresults of a classifier 109 (FIG. 1). R1 and R3 also form a strong matchbased on the results of a classifier 109. Clustering may encompass thenotion of transitive enclosure where R2 and R3 are deemed a match forthe reason that they both, when taken individually, have a strong matchto the same record, R1.

Rather than automatically clustering R2 and R3 based on transitiveenclosure, various embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toperforming conflict resolution to evaluate whether R2 and R3 should beclustered together. In FIG. 5A, R1 and R2 form a weak match. Forexample, a pairwise comparison 209 (FIG. 2) may yield a featuresignature 212 (FIG. 2) that is classified as a weak match. This is not abinary classification, but rather an ordinal classification. A weakmatch is not a hard conflict. For example, R1 and R2 are similar becausethe name fields are an exact match. The addresses are not a match underan exact match comparison or fuzzy match comparison. However, becausecustomers may move from one address to another, it is reasonablyplausible that R1 and R2 refer to the same entity (e.g., a specificcustomer named “Amy Smith”). Because there is no hard-conflict, R1, R2,and R3 would be clustered together.

Embodiments of the present disclosure seek to avoid hard conflicts.Without proper treatment of the transitivity, a connected component cangrow into a long chain or lead to an even more degenerate phenomenon,black hole clusters. A black hole cluster usually starts with recordshaving matches where such records have a variety of different fieldvalues. Once formed, it begins to pull in an increasing amount ofmatched records, and as the cluster continues to grow, the matchedrecords it pulls in grow inordinately. It is very problematic because itwill erroneously “match” more and more records, escalating the problem.Thus, by the end of the transitive closure, one might end up with blackhole entities with several records belonging to multiple differententities.

FIG. 5B is an example of a triplet with a hard conflict according tovarious embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 5B depicts a triplet516 made up of R4, R5, and R6. R4 and R5 form a strong match and R4 andR6 form a strong match. When applying ordinal classification to R5 andR6, the match label is not a “Weak-Match,” rather it is a“Hard-Conflict.” Specifically, the social security numbers (SSN) for R5and R6 are not the same. It is safe to assume that R5 and R6 refer todifferent entities. Using this information the software application 106will not cluster together R4-R6 given the hard conflict. According tovarious embodiments, the software application 106 will cluster togethereither R4-R5 or R4-R6 depending on which pair has the higher matchscore.

FIGS. 6-11 build on an example that demonstrates various embodiments ofthe present disclosure. Beginning with FIG. 6, this is an example ofdata records stored in a database in a computing environment 100 of FIG.1 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. As shownin FIG. 6, there are three database tables 112 a-c each containing atleast one record. Some records may refer to the same entity while somemay not. The software application 106 is configured to performhierarchical clustering for the records existing in one or more databasetables 112 a-c.

Specifically, a database table includes one or more records 601, whereeach record has one or more fields 613. A record 601 may or may not haveall its fields 613 populated. For example, record A2 has a null emailfield. Each record 601 is intended to be dedicated to a real-worldentity. For example, record A1 represents an individual named “JohnSmith” and record C4 represents an individual named “Amy Brown.” Records601 contain different information such that the field values are notidentical, even though they may reflect the same real-world entity. Forexample, in the email field of record A1 and record C1 have differentvalues. However, it is possible that records A1 and C1 represent thesame real-world entity, which is an individual named John Smith. It isalso possible that records A1 and A2 represent different individualseven though some of the field values are the same.

As discussed above with respect to FIG. 3, the software application 103may access a database 103 (FIG. 1) and obtain the database tables 112a-c.

FIG. 7 is an example of data records stored in a database that aresubject to preprocessing in a computing environment 100 of FIG. 1according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. For example,in relation to FIG. 3, the software application 106 (FIG. 1) maypreprocess 305 database tables 112 a-c prior to performing a blockingoperation.

Preprocessing may involving concatenating multiple database tables 112a-c into a single table for subsequent processing. In variousembodiments, the fields of a concatenated database table are semanticfields such that they are normalized across a several database tables112 a-c. For example, one database table 112 may have its F2 fieldoriginally called “last_name” while a different database table 112 mayhave its F2 field originally called “surname.” By using semantic fields,various database tables 112 conform to a universal format of identifyingits fields. This way, the software application 106 (FIG. 1) understandsthat the “last_name” field of one database table 112 maps to the“surname” field of a different database table 112. The database 103(FIG. 1) may store a lookup table that maps original fields to semanticfields in order to normalize the fields across multiple database tables112.

Moreover, field values may be normalized across one or more databasetables. The field “Suffix” refers to a general suffix. The values ofthis field may be normalized to convert all values into an abbreviationformat. For example, “JUNIOR” is converted into “Jr”.

FIG. 8 is an example of two blocks of records in a computing environment100 of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. For example, in relation to FIG. 3, the software application106 (FIG. 1) may perform one or more blocking operations 307.

As part of the blocking operating 307, the software application 106 maycoarsely select records that share some related information and whichcould represent the same real-world entity. For example, a blockingfunction may operate to determine if records are sufficiently similarenough that they might be classified as a related record pair.

This may involve determining which field values are similar or are thesame. One example of a blocking function is to compare a “socialsecurity number (SSN)” field. Two records having the same SSN fieldvalues likely means that the two records form a related pair. Anotherexample of a blocking function is to compare the first three charactersof a first name field and first three characters of a last name fieldbetween two records. By performing a plurality of blocking operations, arelatively large set of records is reduced in a set of blocks thatmaking a clustering analysis more efficient. According to variousembodiments, a blocking operation employs a simple rule check as opposedto a more rigorous classification process.

After performing one or more blocking operations, individual recordsassociated with one or more blocks are connected together to form aconnected component. In the example of FIG. 8, records R1-R6 have beenconnected together to form a first connected component 809 and record R7forms a second connected component 812. The first connected component809 may be determined from applying one or more blocking operations. Asimple blocking rule, for example, may yield this result, such as, forexample, first_name_match and last_name_match. After identifying eachblock, the software application 106 builds connected components 809 andperforms hierarchical clustering inside each connected component 809.Hard conflicts formed through transitivity are resolved by furtherpartitioning the component.

FIG. 9 is an example of pairwise comparison operations and ordinalclassifications performed on data records in a computing environment 100of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.For example, in relation to FIG. 3, the software application 106(FIG. 1) may perform pairwise comparisons and classifications 310 for agiven connected component such as records R1-R7, which is described as afirst connected component 809.

FIG. 9 depicts a first set of classifications 902 performed on candidaterecord pairs taken from one or more blocks of records. In this example,the software application 106 identifies each record in a connectedcomponent, which is records R1-R7. Then, it lists out each combinationof record pairs to perform pairwise comparisons as shown in the “Pair”column. Each pair is compared and then classified to yield a score, suchas a raw score 223 (FIG. 2) and/or normalized score 226 (FIG. 2). Theexample in FIG. 9 depicts a normalized score ranging from 0 to 5 in the“score” column. The score corresponds to an ordinal classification underthe “match category.” Unlike binary classifiers, the ordinalclassification process, according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure, identifies a degree of match as well as the presence of ahard conflict.

The classifier 109 may be trained using ordinal training data 229 (FIG.2) to determine the degree of match as well as the presence of a hardconflict. For illustrative purposes, FIG. 9 shows an “explanation” as towhy a particular pair of inputs has its corresponding classification.This explanation is based on the way the classifier was trained as wellas the application of hard conflict rules 231 (FIG. 2).

The first set of classifications 902 represents a first iteration in thehierarchical clustering scheme, according to various embodiments. Asdescribed in the following figures, an initial cluster is formed as aresult of this first set of classifications 902 and then the process isrepeated using the records of the connected component and the initialcluster.

FIG. 10 is an example of a hierarchical clustering generated by thesoftware application 106 executed in a computing environment 100 of FIG.1 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 10builds on FIGS. 6-9 by showing several iterations of pairwisecomparisons and classifications to generate a hierarchical clustering.Specifically, FIG. 10 shows a first iteration 1003 using the results ofa first set of classifications 902 (FIG. 2). It also shows a seconditeration 1006, a third iteration 1009, and a fourth iteration 1012. Asthe software application 106 performs each iteration 1003, 1006, 1009,1012, the software application 106 develops a hierarchical clustering,as shown in FIG. 10. These iterations 1003, 1006, 1009, 1012 areperformed as part of the operation to generate hierarchical clusters 313in relation to FIG. 3.

As part of the first iteration 1003, the software application 106performs a first set of classifications 902 among the connectedcomponent to generate corresponding match scores. As shown in the firstiteration 1003, these match scores range from 0.05 to 4.5. According tosome embodiments, the software application 106 determines whether a hardconflict exists in response to performing the plurality ofclassifications. The software application 106 identifies the strongestmatch, which may be the pair corresponding to the highest match score.In this example, records R1 and R3 form a pair having the highest matchscore. The software application merges records R1 and R3 to form aninitial cluster. Because R1 and R3 form a “Strong-Match” R1 and R3 willform a cluster within an upper tier of the hierarchical clustering,where the upper tier is reserved for records forming a strong match. Astrong match may be defined as records having a match score that has athreshold match score of 4 or greater. Shown next to the first iterationis the initial cluster of R1 and R3 being formed. These two records arelinked by three lines indicating a strong match in a nomenclature matchdiscussed above with respect to FIG. 4A.

After forming an initial cluster, the software application performs asecond iteration 1006. The second iteration 1006 includes performing asecond set of classifications. As shown in FIG. 10, the second set ofclassifications includes the initial cluster (e.g., R1 and R3) as wellas the remaining records of the connected component. In this example, R1and R3 are treated as a single input into the classifier and compared toother inputs as part of a pairwise comparison. A second set ofcorresponding match scores is generated as a result of the second set ofclassifications.

Next, the software application 106 identifies the highest match score,which is, in this case, a score of 4. This score relates to comparing afirst input 203 (FIG. 2) of {R1 and R3} with a second input 206 (FIG. 2)of {R2}. In addition, the set of classifications yields the presence ofa hard conflict with respect to comparing {R1 and R3} and {R6}. The hardconflict may arise from the fact that the date of birth (DoB) for R6 isdifferent or substantially different from the DoB shared by R1 and R3.Additionally or alternatively, the hard conflict may arise from the factthat the generational suffix between R6 (“Sr”) is not an exact match tothe generational suffix of R3 (“Jr”). The detection of a hard conflictprecludes R6 from forming a cluster with at least R1, R2, and R3.

This example also demonstrates how the absence of conflict resolutionmay lead to undesirable results. For example, R6 and R2 have a highmatch score of 4. Transitive enclosure without conflict resolution wouldhave let to a cluster of R1, R2, R3, and R6. Based on analyzing thematch scores of the second set of comparisons and applying conflictresolution, the software application 106 expands the initial cluster toinclude R1, R2, and R3 as part of the second iteration 1006. Because R1and R2 have a high score exceeding the threshold match score of a strongmatch, records R1, R2, and R3 form at least part of the upper tier inthe hierarchical clustering.

The software application 106 then performs a third iteration 1009 basedon a third set of classifications that yields corresponding matchscores. Like the previous iteration, the combination of input pairsbeing classified includes the growing initial cluster. This reduces thenumber of pairwise comparisons. As shown in the third iteration 1009,the highest match score is 3.9 belonging to the pair {R1, R2, R3} and{R4}. This match score corresponds to a “Moderate-Match” based on theapplied threshold match scores. Because there are no input pairsyielding a “Strong-Match”, the software application 106 concludes thedetermination of an upper tier where the upper tier is reserved forstrong matches. That is, the upper tier of the hierarchical clusteringis known by the third iteration 1009. This upper tier is made up of acluster including records R1, R2, and R3. The remaining recordsindividually form singleton clusters in the upper tier.

In this example, the software application 106 begins building a tierbelow the upper tier, which is a middle tier. Record R4 is included withrecords R1, R2, and R3 as part of the middle tier, but not the uppertier. Record R4 has a moderate-match with respect to R1 and R3.

The software application 106 then performs a fourth iteration 1012 basedon a fourth set of classifications that yields corresponding matchscores. The highest match in the fourth iteration is 2.2, whichcorresponds to a weak-match label. Because there are no input pairsyielding a moderate-match, the software application 106 concludes thedetermination of the middle tier.

In addition, because there are no other input combinations that wouldyield a minimum match score, the process to determine the hierarchicalclustering is complete. Here, record R6, the only remaining input, isassociated with a hard conflict with respect to the initial cluster.Thus, the application 106 also concludes the determination of the lowertier.

The example of FIG. 10 may be applied to each connected component withinone or more database tables 112 (FIG. 1) to generate a hierarchicalclustering for each connected component.

FIG. 11 depicts a processed database table 118 in a computingenvironment 100 of FIG. 1 according to various embodiments of thepresent disclosure. After hierarchical clustering is complete for one ormore connected components, the software application 106 may generate aprocessed database table 118 in relation to 316 of FIG. 3. According tovarious embodiments, the processed database table 118 is similar to thepre-processed database table but has been processed to determinehierarchical clusters. The software application 106 determineshierarchical cluster IDs 1104 for each record according to thehierarchical clusters and assigns hierarchical cluster IDs 1104 for eachrecord.

The hierarchical cluster ID 1104 encodes the position of a record withina hierarchical cluster. In this respect, the hierarchical cluster IDreflects where a record falls within a cluster among the tiers of ahierarchical cluster. The software application 106 assigns a respectivehierarchical cluster ID to each record within the connected componentaccording to the hierarchical clustering. The hierarchical cluster ID1104 includes a series of values where each value reflects a respectivetier among the plurality of tiers. For example, the ordinal classifieris configured to label pairs according to three degrees of matchstrength: Weak-Match, Moderate-Match, and Strong-Match. The softwareapplication 106 clusters the connected component according tohierarchical tiers corresponding to these ordinal classifications. Thehierarchical cluster ID 1104 is a concatenation of values that representwhich cluster a particular record belongs to for a given tier.

As shown in FIG. 11, the hierarchical cluster IDs 1104 are encoded inthe format of C-t1-t2-t3 to reflect a three tier system. Here, “t1” is afirst value indicating which cluster a record belongs to in the lowertier, which is the tier that groups clusters according to the label,weak-match. Next, “t2” is a second value indicating which cluster arecord belongs to in the middle tier, which is the tier that groupsclusters according to the label, moderate-match. Lastly, “t3” is a thirdvalue indicating which cluster a record belongs to in the upper tier,which is the tier that groups clusters according to the label,Strong-Match.

Records R1-5 have a hierarchical cluster ID 1104 with a “t1” value of 1.Sharing the same value indicates that these records all belong to thesame cluster within the lower tier. Record R6 has a hierarchical clusterID 1104 with a “t1” value of 2 and record R7 has a hierarchical clusterID with an “t1” value of 3. This means that R6 and R7 form separateclusters along the lower tier. The “t2” value and “t3” values furtherdifferentiate which clusters a record belongs to with respect to highertiers. This is discussed in more detail with respect to FIG. 12.

FIG. 12 is an example of hierarchical cluster IDs provided by a clientdevice in a computing environment 100 of FIG. 1 according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 12 shows a client device 124that interfaces with a software application 106 (FIG. 1) over a network102 (FIG. 1). The computing architecture is embodied as a client-serversystem where a client device may send requests to a computing system 101(FIG. 1) and receive responses from the computing system 101. The clientdevice 124 includes a user interface 1203. The user interface 1203 mayinclude a text field, form, or other graphic menu item to receive userinputs from the client. The user interface 1203 is rendered by a mobileapplication, browser, or other client-side application. The userinterface 1203 allows a user to provide inputs to control the manner ofprocessing one or more database tables 112 (FIG. 1) to generate aprocessed database table 118. The user interface 1203 also allows a userto control, access, modify, edit, or otherwise manipulate a processeddatabase table 118.

The user of a client device 124 uses the client device 124 to identifyclusters of records within a processed database table 118 for subsequentprocessing. For example, a user may wish to email various customersidentified in a processed database table. Because individual records maybe duplicative, the user may access a cluster of records that refer tothe same entity in accordance with a particular confidence level. Thismay lead to sending fewer emails or reducing the risk of sendingmultiple emails to the same entity.

Depending on the reason why a user wishes to access records,hierarchical cluster IDs that reflect hierarchical clustering allow auser to reference a cluster according to a desired level of confidence.The software application 106 is configured to receive a hierarchicalcluster ID from a client device 124, via a user interface 1203, to allowa selection of a cluster among the hierarchical clustering according tothe hierarchical cluster ID. According to various embodiments, thehierarchical cluster ID is viable in length such that the lengthcorresponds to a respective tier. In this case, a user may provide aportion of the hierarchical cluster ID 1104 to refer to lower tierclusters. As the user provides more values in the hierarchical clusterID, the user may reference upper tier clusters. Thus, the length of thehierarchical cluster ID corresponds to a respective tier. An upper tier(one associated with a higher confidence in the strength of match) maybe referenced by a complete hierarchical cluster ID while a lower tier(one associated with a lower confidence in the strength of match) may bereferenced by a partial hierarchical cluster ID.

FIG. 12 shows how the variable length hierarchical cluster ID is used toaccess different clusters among a hierarchical clustering scheme. Afirst hierarchical cluster ID 1104 a represents a partial hierarchicalcluster ID 1104. In this example, the partial hierarchical cluster ID1104 includes a single value, thereby making it shorter in length than acomplete hierarchical cluster ID 1104. The use of a single value allowsa user to specify a lower confidence tier. For example, the hierarchicalcluster ID “c-1” refers to records R1-R5. Records R1-R5 all havehierarchical cluster IDs beginning with “c-1” and may have additionalvalues beyond that. However, the additional values are not relevant ifthe user is only concerned with a lower confidence tier.

If the user submits a longer hierarchical cluster ID 1104 b such as“c-1-1,” then the use of additional values allows the softwareapplication 106 to identify a higher tier that reflects a moderateconfidence level. As shown in FIG. 12, this longer hierarchical clusterID 1104 b provides a narrower cluster than the first hierarchicalcluster ID 1104 a. Specifically, record R5 forms part of the lowerconfidence cluster but not a higher confidence cluster.

An even longer hierarchical cluster ID such as a complete hierarchicalcluster ID 1104 c, such as “c-1-1-2”, specifies a cluster on the highesttier. In this case, the singleton cluster R4 is referenced by thishierarchical cluster ID. Users may use complete hierarchical cluster IDswhen they want the highest confidence in terms of clustering. In otherwords, they want clusters only if there is a Strong-Match.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the functionality ofthe software application 106 executed in a computing environment 100 ofFIG. 1 performing hierarchical clustering with conflict resolutionaccording to various embodiments of the present disclosure. It isunderstood that the flowchart of FIG. 13 provides merely an example ofthe many different types of functional arrangements that may be employedto implement the operation of the portion of the software application106 as described herein. As an alternative, the flowchart of FIG. 13 maybe viewed as depicting an example of elements of a method implemented inthe computing system 101 (FIG. 1) according to one or more embodiments.FIG. 13 provides a more detailed explanation of FIG. 3, particularlywith respect to items 310, 313, and 316,

At 1301, the software application derives a connected component from oneor more database tables 112 (FIG. 1). To derive or otherwise determine aconnected component, records may be identified in response to firstperforming a blocking operation as discussed in FIG. 3, item 307; thenperforming a classification to identify positive record pairs asdiscussed in FIG. 3, item 308; and lastly, connecting them together toform a connected component as described in FIG. 3, item 310. Thediscussion above with respect to FIG. 8 shows how a connected component(made up of records R1-R6) is identified from a plurality of datarecords from one or more data tables 112. At 1304, the softwareapplication 106 initially treats each record as a singleton cluster. Inthis respect, the pairwise comparisons that are subsequently performedare performed on two inputs, each input being a cluster of one or morerecords.

At 1306, the software application 106 performs pairwise comparisons andclassifications on remaining clusters to generate corresponding matchscores. For the first iteration, the pairwise comparisons are performedon the various combinations of record pairs in the connected component.An example of this is presented with respect to FIG. 9, which showseleven pairwise comparisons based on six records. If a pairwisecomparison was previously performed on a particular records pair, thenthe software application 106 applies the result of that previouslyperformed comparison without performing a redundant calculation. Becausepairwise comparisons were performed to create the connected component,the results of these previous pairwise comparisons are stored and reusedfor future purposes of hierarchical clustering.

At 1307, the software application 106 removes hard conflicts fromconsideration. For example, the software application 106 looks for twoinputs where a hard conflict arises, such as, for example, FIG. 5B. Thesoftware application 106 records instances of two inputs having a hardconflict to ensure that subsequent iterations of clustering will avoidclustering together those two inputs. Using ordinal classification andapplying a “Hard-Conflict” label allows the software application todetect hard conflicts. Also, the software application 106 may implementone or more hard conflict rules to screen for hard conflicts withoutclassification. According to various embodiments, the operations of 1307occur simultaneously with the operations of 1306.

At 1310, the software application 106 identifies the highest score abovea minimum threshold. Here, the software application is searching for thestrongest match among the remaining clusters. The minimum threshold maybe the lowest threshold for an acceptable match, such as a weak-match.Thus, the software application 106 continues iterate as long as there isat least a weak-match in the remaining clusters of the connectedcomponent.

At 1313, the software application 106 merges clusters using the highestmatch score. The inputs having the highest match score are merged into asingle cluster. The inputs may be singleton clusters or multi-recordclusters. This marks the completion of an iteration. Thereafter, thesoftware application 106 proceeds to 1306 where it performs a subsequentiteration. In a subsequent iteration, the remaining clusters includesome initial or intermediate cluster that was generated from a previousiteration.

Referring back to 310, when there are no inputs having a sufficientlyhigh match score, the software application 106 assigns hierarchicalcluster IDs 1104 (FIG. 11) to remaining clusters at 1317. The softwareapplication 106 has completed the generation of a multi-tier clustering.As the software application iterates through performing pairwisecomparisons and classifications, it generates hierarchical clustering,where each tier corresponds to a threshold match score. These thresholdmatch scores may correspond to the ordinal labels assigned to variousinput pairs. As discussed in FIG. 11, the software application generateshierarchical cluster IDs 1104 according to the hierarchical clustering.

At 1320, the software application 106 generates a processed database 118(FIG. 1) with hierarchical cluster IDs 1104. Users may referenceparticular clusters within the hierarchical clustering usinghierarchical cluster IDs as discussed in FIG. 12.

FIG. 14 is a schematic block diagram that provides one exampleillustration of a computing system 101 of FIG. 1 according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure. The computing system 101 includesone or more computing devices 1400. Each computing device 1400 includesat least one processor circuit, for example, having a processor 1403 andmemory 1406, both of which are coupled to a local interface 1409 or bus.To this end, each computing device 1400 may comprise, for example, atleast one server computer or like device. The local interface 1409 maycomprise, for example, a data bus with an accompanying address/controlbus or other bus structure as can be appreciated.

Stored in the memory 1406 are both data and several components that areexecutable by the processor 1403. In particular, stored in the memory1406 and executable by the processor 1403 is the software application106 and classifier 109. Also stored in the memory 1406 may be a database103 and other data such as, for example a one or more database tables112 and a processed database table 118. In addition, an operating systemmay be stored in the memory 1406 and executable by the processor 1403.

It is understood that there may be other applications that are stored inthe memory 1406 and are executable by the processor 1403 as can beappreciated. Where any component discussed herein is implemented in theform of software, any one of a number of programming languages may beemployed, such as, for example, C, C++, C#, Objective C, Java®,JavaScript®, Perl, PHP, Visual Basic®, Python®, Ruby, Flash®, or otherprogramming languages.

Several software components are stored in the memory 1406 and areexecutable by the processor 1403. In this respect, the term “executable”means a program file that is in a form that can ultimately be run by theprocessor 1403. Examples of executable programs may be, for example, acompiled program that can be translated into machine code in a formatthat can be loaded into a random access portion of the memory 1406 andrun by the processor 1403, source code that may be expressed in properformat such as object code that is capable of being loaded into a randomaccess portion of the memory 1406 and executed by the processor 1403, orsource code that may be interpreted by another executable program togenerate instructions in a random access portion of the memory 1406 tobe executed by the processor 1403, etc. An executable program may bestored in any portion or component of the memory 1406 including, forexample, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), hard drive,solid-state drive, USB flash drive, memory card, optical disc such ascompact disc (CD) or digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, magnetictape, or other memory components.

The memory 1406 is defined herein as including both volatile andnonvolatile memory and data storage components. Volatile components arethose that do not retain data values upon loss of power. Nonvolatilecomponents are those that retain data upon a loss of power. Thus, thememory 1406 may comprise, for example, random access memory (RAM),read-only memory (ROM), hard disk drives, solid-state drives, USB flashdrives, memory cards accessed via a memory card reader, floppy disksaccessed via an associated floppy disk drive, optical discs accessed viaan optical disc drive, magnetic tapes accessed via an appropriate tapedrive, and/or other memory components, or a combination of any two ormore of these memory components. In addition, the RAM may comprise, forexample, static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random accessmemory (DRAM), or magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and other suchdevices. The ROM may comprise, for example, a programmable read-onlymemory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), anelectrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or otherlike memory device.

Also, the processor 1403 may represent multiple processors 1403 and/ormultiple processor cores and the memory 1406 may represent multiplememories 1406 that operate in parallel processing circuits,respectively. In such a case, the local interface 1409 may be anappropriate network that facilitates communication between any two ofthe multiple processors 1403, between any processor 1403 and any of thememories 1406, or between any two of the memories 1406, etc. The localinterface 1409 may comprise additional systems designed to coordinatethis communication, including, for example, performing load balancing.The processor 1403 may be of electrical or of some other availableconstruction.

Although the software application 106 described herein may be embodiedin software or code executed by general purpose hardware as discussedabove, as an alternative the same may also be embodied in dedicatedhardware or a combination of software/general purpose hardware anddedicated hardware. If embodied in dedicated hardware, each can beimplemented as a circuit or state machine that employs any one of or acombination of a number of technologies. These technologies may include,but are not limited to, discrete logic circuits having logic gates forimplementing various logic functions upon an application of one or moredata signals, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) havingappropriate logic gates, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), orother components, etc. Such technologies are generally well known bythose skilled in the art and, consequently, are not described in detailherein.

The flowcharts discussed above show the functionality and operation ofan implementation of the software application 106. If embodied insoftware, each box may represent a module, segment, or portion of codethat comprises program instructions to implement the specified logicalfunction(s). The program instructions may be embodied in the form ofsource code that comprises human-readable statements written in aprogramming language or machine code that comprises numericalinstructions recognizable by a suitable execution system, such as aprocessor 1403 in a computer system or other system. The machine codemay be converted from the source code, etc. If embodied in hardware,each block may represent a circuit or a number of interconnectedcircuits to implement the specified logical function(s).

Although the flowcharts show a specific order of execution, it isunderstood that the order of execution may differ from that which isdepicted. For example, the order of execution of two or more boxes maybe scrambled relative to the order shown. Also, two or more boxes shownin succession may be executed concurrently or with partial concurrence.Further, in some embodiments, one or more of the boxes may be skipped oromitted. In addition, any number of counters, state variables, warningsemaphores, or messages might be added to the logical flow describedherein, for purposes of enhanced utility, accounting, performancemeasurement, or providing troubleshooting aids, etc. It is understoodthat all such variations are within the scope of the present disclosure.

The software application 106 may also comprise software or code that canbe embodied in any non-transitory computer-readable medium for use by orin connection with an instruction execution system such as, for example,a processor 1403 in a computer system or other system. In this sense,the logic may comprise, for example, statements including instructionsand declarations that can be fetched from the computer-readable mediumand executed by the instruction execution system. In the context of thepresent disclosure, a “computer-readable medium” can be any medium thatcan contain, store, or maintain the logic or application describedherein for use by or in connection with the instruction executionsystem.

The computer-readable medium can comprise any one of many physical mediasuch as, for example, magnetic, optical, or semiconductor media. Morespecific examples of a suitable computer-readable medium would include,but are not limited to, magnetic tapes, magnetic floppy diskettes,magnetic hard drives, memory cards, solid-state drives, USB flashdrives, or optical discs. Also, the computer-readable medium may be arandom access memory (RAM) including, for example, static random accessmemory (SRAM) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM), or magneticrandom access memory (MRAM). In addition, the computer-readable mediummay be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM),an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electricallyerasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or other type of memorydevice.

Further, any logic or application described herein, including softwareapplication 106, may be implemented and structured in a variety of ways.For example, one or more applications described may be implemented asmodules or components of a single application. Further, one or moreapplications described herein may be executed in shared or separatecomputing devices or a combination thereof. For example, the softwareapplication described herein may execute in the same computing device1400, or in multiple computing devices in the same computing system 101.Additionally, it is understood that terms such as “application,”“service,” “system,” “engine,” “module,” and so on may beinterchangeable and are not intended to be limiting.

Disjunctive language such as the phrase “at least one of X, Y, or Z,”unless specifically stated otherwise, is otherwise understood with thecontext as used in general to present that an item, term, etc., may beeither X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y, and/or Z).Thus, such disjunctive language is not generally intended to, and shouldnot, imply that certain embodiments require at least one of X, at leastone of Y, or at least one of Z to each be present.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of thepresent disclosure are merely possible examples of implementations setforth for a clear understanding of the principles of the disclosure.Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-describedembodiment(s) without departing substantially from the spirit andprinciples of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations areintended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure andprotected by the following claims.

1. A system comprising: a database that stores at least one databasetable comprising a plurality of records; and a memory coupled to aprocessor, the memory comprising a plurality of instructions that causethe processor to: identify a subset of records among the plurality ofrecords according to at least one blocking operation; perform aplurality of classifications, by an ordinal classifier configured byordinal training data that comprises a set of non-binary, ordinallabels, among the subset of records to generate corresponding matchscores and one or more indications of a hard conflict; determine to notmerge at least one record among the subset of records with a cluster ofa plurality of records among the subset of records when a) at least onematch score indicates a sufficiently strong match and b) a determinationthat a hard conflict exists between the at least one record and aplurality of records within the cluster; and generate a hierarchicalclustering for the subset of records, the hierarchical clusteringcomprising a plurality of tiers, wherein each tier corresponds to arespective threshold match score, wherein a first tier among theplurality of tiers encompasses a second tier among the plurality oftiers.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of instructionsthat cause the processor to determine whether a hard conflict existsfurther comprise instructions that cause the processor to apply a hardconflict rule to inputs of a pairwise comparison.
 3. The system of claim1, wherein said at least one blocking operation comprises a blockingrule based on whether the plurality of records contain an exact matchwith respect to at least one field in the at least one database table.4. (canceled)
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of non-binary,ordinal labels comprises a strong match, a weak match, and a hardconflict.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality ofinstructions further cause the processor to iteratively perform theplurality classifications until the corresponding match scores include ahighest score that falls below a minimum threshold.
 7. The system ofclaim 1, wherein at least one of the inputs to at least one of theiteratively performed classifications comprises a cluster made up of twoor more records among the subset of records.
 8. A computer implementedmethod comprising: performing a first set of ordinal classifications, byan ordinal classifier configured by ordinal training data that comprisesa set of ordinal labels, on a subset of records derived from a pluralityof records contained within at least one database table to generate afirst set of corresponding match scores, wherein the ordinal labels arenon-binary; merging at least two records within the subset of records togenerate an initial cluster within the subset of records, according tothe first set of corresponding match scores; performing a second set ofordinal classifications, by the ordinal classifier, among the subset ofrecords, including the initial cluster, to generate a subsequent set ofcorresponding match scores, and generating a hierarchical clustering forthe subset of records, the hierarchical clustering comprising aplurality of tiers, each tier corresponding to a respective ordinallabel among the set of ordinal labels, wherein each tier corresponds toa respective threshold match score.
 9. The method of claim 8, furthercomprising determining whether a hard conflict exists between theinitial cluster and another record among the subset of records inresponse to performing the second set of ordinal classifications. 10.The method of claim 9, wherein determining whether a hard conflictexists between the initial cluster and another record among the subsetof records comprises applying a hard conflict rule to the initialcluster and another record.
 11. The method of claim 9, whereindetermining whether a hard conflict exists between the initial clusterand another record among the subset of records comprises evaluating anordinal label with respect to the initial cluster and another record.12. The method of claim 8, further comprising: identifying the subset ofrecords according to a blocking operation, wherein the blockingoperation comprises a blocking rule based on whether the plurality ofrecords of a field are an exact match with respect to at least one fieldin the at least one database table.
 13. The method of claim 8, whereinthe set of ordinal labels comprises a strong match, a weak match, and ahard conflict.
 14. One or more non-transitory computer-readable,non-volatile storage memory comprising stored instructions that areexecutable and, responsive to execution by a computing device, thecomputing device performs operations comprising: performing a first setof ordinal classifications, by an ordinal classifier configured byordinal training data that comprises a set of ordinal labels, among asubset of records of at least one database table to generate a first setof corresponding match scores, wherein the ordinal labels arenon-binary; merging at least two records within the subset of records togenerate an initial cluster within the subset of records, according tothe first set of corresponding match scores; performing at a second setof ordinal classifications, by the ordinal classifier, among the subsetof records, including the initial cluster, to generate a subsequent setof corresponding match scores, and generating a hierarchical clusteringfor the subset of records, the hierarchical clustering comprising aplurality of tiers, wherein each tier corresponds to a respectiveordinal label among the set of ordinal labels.
 15. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable, non-volatile storage memory of claim14, wherein the subset of records of at least one database table isidentified according to a blocking operation that groups the records ofthe at least one database table.
 16. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable, non-volatile storage memory of claim 15, wherein theblocking operating comprises a blocking rule based on whether aplurality of records in the at least one database table contain an exactmatch with respect to at least one field in the at least one databasetable.
 17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable,non-volatile storage memory of claim 14, wherein the existence of a hardconflict between the initial cluster and another record among the subsetof records is checked in response to performing the second set ofordinal classifications.
 18. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable, non-volatile storage memory of claim 16, wherein theexistence of the hard conflict is checked by applying a hard conflictrule to the initial cluster and said another record.
 19. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable, non-volatile storage memory of claim16, wherein the existence of the hard conflict is checked by evaluatingan ordinal label with respect to the initial cluster and said anotherrecord.
 20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable,non-volatile storage memory of claim 16, wherein the set of ordinallabels comprises a Strong-Match, a Weak-Match, and a Hard-Conflict.